Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1321 - 2. Terminology and Notation

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### 2. Terminology and Notation

In this document a "word" is a 32-bit quantity and a "byte" is an eight-bit quantity. A sequence of bits can be interpreted in a natural manner as a sequence of bytes, where each consecutive group of eight bits is interpreted as a byte with the high-order (most significant) bit of each byte listed first. Similarly, a sequence of bytes can be interpreted as a sequence of 32-bit words, where each consecutive group of four bytes is interpreted as a word with the low-order (least significant) byte given first.

Let x_i denote "x sub i". If the subscript is an expression, we surround it in braces, as in x_{i+1}. Similarly, we use ^ for superscripts (exponentiation), so that x^i denotes x to the i-th power.

Let the symbol "+" denote addition of words (i.e., modulo-2^32 addition). Let X <<< s denote the 32-bit value obtained by circularly shifting (rotating) X left by s bit positions. Let not(X) denote the bit-wise complement of X, and let X v Y denote the bit-wise OR of X and Y. Let X xor Y denote the bit-wise XOR of X and Y, and let XY denote the bit-wise AND of X and Y.

Next: 3. MD5 Algorithm Description

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1321 - 2. Terminology and Notation